Month: August 2018

On August 13th, we sorted through the lambs in the feedlot. Since we are very dry right now, we decided not to keep any for ourselves.

We sorted off 100 ewe lambs that were twins. These will be sold to another rancher for his operation. Twin lambs were all together in a pasture & were discretely ear notched at weaning so we could identify which were twins. Marking twin lambs is important. Ewes with twins means a higher lamb crop & a better chance of those ewe lambs having twins themselves. This buyer specifically wanted twin ewe lambs. Since the twin lambs were marked, we were able to easily sort off twin ewe lambs for him.

The remaining 123 ewe lambs & 223 ram lambs were sold at the Gillespie Livestock Auction the next day. These lambs had been in the feedlot since weaning (June) & were fed a prepared ration in order to gain weight at a quicker rate. This was a key sale since it was just before Eid-Ul-Adha, the Muslim Festival of Sacrifice.

This festival remembers the prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son when God ordered him to in a dream. As Ibrahim prepared to kill his son, God stopped him & gave him a sheep to sacrifice instead. During this festival, Muslims sacrifice domestic animals (usually sheep) as a symbol of Ibrahim’s sacrifice.source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/holydays/eiduladha.shtml

We also sold some cull nannies & yearling billies at this sale. These goats were sheared just before they were sold.